Abstract
Establishment of the Papah¯anaumoku¯akea Marine National Monument
(PMNM) in 2006 was heralded as a major advance for marine conservation.
The PMNM is one of the largest no-take marine reserves in the world
(36,207,439 hectares) and includes all of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
(NWHI). Despite the protection, within its boundaries one of Hawaii’s
most charismatic marine species, the endemic Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus
schauinslandi), is declining towards extinction. In contrast, monk seal abundance
is increasing in the largely unprotected Main Hawaiian Islands. High
juvenile mortality in the NWHI has been identified as the demographic factor
responsible for the population decline. The ecological drivers of the dynamic
are unknown. We evaluate an intervention proposed by the Pacific Islands
Fisheries Science Center within the PMNM in a situation in which there is
little or no precedent of theory to support management decisions, and then
examine the conflicting conservation mandates that pose challenges for monk
seal conservation. Benefits of intervention include the potential to maintain
subpopulations in the NWHI, and therefore preserve the metapopulation structure,
and it will provide additional time for management agencies to continue
studies to understand factors limiting population growth. If conditions inside
the PMNM do not improve, however, juvenile seals will continue to experience
poor survival and subpopulations in the NWHI will continue to decline
in spite of intervention. The long-term success of any intervention requires
the underlying ecological reason for the NWHI population decline, which is
currently unclear. The failure of the PMNM to conserve endangered Hawaiian
monk seals highlights conflicting goals of different conservation agendas, the
need to understand ecosystem function and large-scale ecosystem interactions,
and the necessity of adaptive management.
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